White Oak Tree Planting

[mknolls]

Need some advice. Looking to Plant white oak tree's in a large planter or Five gallon palls. Wont to know if anybody from MN has had any kind of success at this. Have looked at a few Google pages but wont to know first hand from someone with experience in this. Or a mentor if you would be willing to talk to me from time to time. Will give out email if anybody is willing. Looking to grow about 40 tree's or more to be transplanted up at our land. Starting from an acorn. Would like to see some 0f hard woods come back where we hunt. Also beach nut tree's and walnut.

[LwnmwnMan2]

Unless you're dead set on growing these trees from the ground up (literally), you might want to look at getting seedlings and using them.

I believe it's the Extension Service that in the spring will have a list of trees that you can buy from seedlings and then grow them from there.

[Big-Al]

If your land is "up north" the species you mention my be out of their range. I agree with the purchasing seedling advice.

[solbes]

If your land is "up north" the species you mention my be out of their range. I agree with the purchasing seedling advice.

Depends how far north. We have 10-20 fully mature white oaks on our property near Walker, so zone 3A/3B boundary.

Also you may have problems transplanting oaks because of their deep taproot. I guess if they are REALLY young when you transplant them, but I've had problems even moving very small trees.

[Big-Al]

I was referring more to the beach and walnut than the oak. White oak can do OK fairly far "up north".

[Steve Foss]

White oak can actually do fine in the north, though they thin out fast heading north of the southern portion of Zone 3. Same with walnut and beech.

And bur oak is a type of white oak adapted to the northern Prairie areas of Minnesota and North Dakota all through Zone 3. In my experience, bur oak are more common north of the Mille Lacs area than white oak. And, of course, there are gazillion northern red oaks up in the northern part of the state all through Zone 3. So, where roughly is this land?

For a great point-by-point package of info on oak planting and husbandry, check out a U of M Extension bulletin by clicking this link.

[Bear55]

Anyone have any luck just throwing some acorns in the ground up north? We have very few to zero oaks the area we hunt so last year I collected a few hundred white oak acorns and planted them in a fresh cutting hoping to some day have a nice little patch of oaks to hunt. Just wondering what the odds of any of them growing are? Also just for location purposes this would be in northern Itasca County.

[solbes]

I let the trees throw out their own acorns. And yes I have plenty of volunteer oaks growing (I try to avoid them with the mower). You hardly notice them though, talk about SLOW growing. I can thank the resort owners of the early 1900's for planting the fully mature oaks that we enjoy on our property.

Plant an acorn today for your grandkids!

[swamptiger]

You can get quite a bit of information online just by doing a search on "growing oak trees from acorns". I have a lot of young oak trees on my property that just came up from the acorns from 6 or 8 mature trees. Slow growing, yes, but I think they are one of the best trees to have on your property once they get going, and very hardy.

[Bear55]

Plant an acorn today for your grandkids!

That is pretty much the plan, I'm 31 so I might see some acorn deer hunting action some day but the kids and grandkids should reap the rewards. If nothing comes up I guess we will just have to keep chasing those acorn deprived swamp bucks.

[Bear55]

You can get quite a bit of information online just by doing a search on "growing oak trees from acorns".

I've looked into this before and everyone pretty much says the same thing, put them in a pot and transplant them. That is fine but I don't really want to babysit a bunch of trees and then transplant them. I am just hoping my plant and pray methods works. Out of maybe 400-500 acorns tossed in the ground I can get anywhere from 3 to 10 of them to reach maturity. Anyone think I have a chance?

[Steve Foss]

Out of maybe 400-500 acorns tossed in the ground I can get anywhere from 3 to 10 of them to reach maturity. Anyone think I have a chance?

Yup.